Firstly, I entered Night of the Chalk in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) competition to fight it out with a murderer’s row of talent. The overall contest is just warming up, but NOC cover received some love and made the finals of the cover competition, ultimately coming in at about #8 out of 300 (depending on how you tally the score). Read more about the overall contest here and the cover contest and results here. SPFBO is a great way to learn about new indie fantasy books.

Secondly, I’m entering final edits on what has been to date called Open, Fire-eye, Close (you may have seen the preview chapter at the end of Rise of the Falsemarked). The new working title is The Fire-Eye Refugee, and it is shaping up to be pretty kickass in my own humble opinion. A sidestep from The Spies of Dragon and Chalk series, but still fantasy steeped in intrigue. More tantalizing previews to come.

Thirdly and finally, I finished the first draft of the third Spies of Dragon and Chalk book Alliance of the Sunken. And then collapsed in a heap. This is only the first step in a long journey, but keep your eyes peeled for the continuing adventures of Aaron and Cal…as early as Fall 2017?

I’m having a great day listening to some old Oasis concerts and researching Amazon keywords (and trying not to yell at my dogs too much) and figured I’ve reached peak messiness on this website. So here’s a quick update to sort things out for any random visitors.

I’ve completed Night of the Chalk, which is the first book in the Spies of Dragon and Chalk series. I’ve also completed Rise of the Falsemarked, the second installment in SDC. Both of them will be available on Amazon shortly. Just waiting on the final covers…you can see the custom illustrations in previous posts. Each book is a standalone adventure, but RFM does build on some of NOC’s events, so all things being equal better to start with NOC.

I’ve started the third SDC book and it will be called Alliance of the Sunken unless I have a change of heart. I’m guessing Spring or Summer of 2017.

Before that book, I’ve got another nearly ready to go. It is called Open Fire-eye Close. It takes place in the same world but without the titular dragons or Chalk in the SDC series.

Don’t hesitate to send a note to gatelysamuel at gmail if you have any questions or comments.